Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse lamented the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for picking winners and losers when asked about the prospects of an XRP exchange-traded fund launching in the U.S. by Fox Business’s Charles Gasparino during an Oct. 18 interview:
Why is the SEC picking winners and losers?
Garlinghouse went on to mention that Bitcoin has “massive” power consumption.
Hence, prioritizing Bitcoin doesn’t sit well with SEC Chair Gary Gensler’s climate agenda, according to the Ripple boss. Earlier, he mentioned that XRP is 100,000 times more efficient than the largest cryptocurrency, estimating that only one Bitcoin transition consumes 75 gallons of gasoline.
In addition, Garlinghouse is concerned about Gensler’s silence on the regulatory status of Ether, the second-largest cryptocurrency.
There are several pending Ether ETF filings in the U.S. that are waiting for the regulator’s nod.
In the meantime, ProShares Bitcoin Strategy ETF, the first approved Bitcoin futures ETF, is set to start trading on the New York Stock Exchange.
Garlinghouse says that it’s “ironic” how the SEC fights for disclosures and clarity but fails to reciprocate when it comes to its own actions:
What we seek more than anything is clarity and certainty.
As reported by U.Today, an XRP exchange-fund product (ETP) was listed on Zurich-based SIX Swiss by crypto asset management firm CoinShares this April.
However, Swiss crypto money manager 21Shares moved to remove XRP from the list of its ETP products after the SEC sued Ripple, alleging that the cryptocurrency is an unregistered security.
Ripple is not willing to settle
According to Gasparino, Garlinghouse said that Ripple wouldn’t settle if XRP were deemed a security.
The most recent comment echoes the executive’s earlier statement about how there should be “absolute certainty” about the cryptocurrency’s regulatory status:
There is no scenario though when we gonna settle unless there is absolute certainty about what is XRP on the go-forward basis.